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PROVO — Taysom Hill is done playing football this season.
Bronco Mendenhall confirmed what many feared to be true after Monday's practice.
Hill suffered what BYU head trainer Jeff Hurst calls a "complex lateral injury." He suffered damage to the LCL in his left knee as well as damage to a hamstring tendon in the same leg. It will take him four to six months to recover.
The injury occurred on the third to final play of the game with the clock running. All Hill needed to do was take a knee and run out the clock but due to miscommunication Hill ran a draw play up the middle of the field when the injury occurred.
Bronco Mendenhall attempted to explain what happened on the sideline before the fateful play.
"The victory signal went in as soon as his eyes went away everyone was yelling victory, victory, victory but he didn't hear," Mendenhall recalls.
Hill received a hand rolling signal from the sideline which means the clock is running. He interpreted the hand signal to mean run the play. Hill never saw the signal to run the victory formation and take a knee.
"It was really unfortunate," says Coach Mendenhall. "Cleaner communication on our part needs to be done so it's easier on him. It's not his fault. It's our fault."
No one seems to be taking the injury harder than offensive coordinator Brandon Doman who blames himself and calls the situation "poorly handled and miscommunicated."
"All the circumstances leading up to it, it's my fault. At least that's how I feel and I'm responsible for that." Doman said after Monday's practice. "I don't know that I'll ever get over him getting injured the way he did."
Now that Taysom Hill is out for the rest of the season BYU will turn to the quarterback who has been listed as the starter all season.
"Riley is ready," Mendenhall declared after Monday's practice.
Riley Nelson took all the reps in practice Monday and will start at Quarterback against 10th ranked Oregon State on Saturday.
Nelson says the pain that caused him to struggle in his last start against Boise State is gone.
"It was at a point where I was feeling it in every step and every throw and every cut and every move," Nelson said about the back injury he suffered against Weber State. "Eventually what happened was that occupied my mind so much to where it affected my decision making and my play and really my confidence level. That's all gone. Because I don't feel pain anymore and I don't feel hurt."
His conditioning is not where it needs to be after sitting out to rest the injury but, according to him, all other aspects of his game are back now that the pain is gone. He expects to play the same way he always has on Saturday.
"I didn't play hesitant," he says about the games he played in while injured. "I took all the hits I needed to take and ran when I needed to run when I was playing with fractures in my back so now that they are healed I don't expect to revert back to playing any differently."
Riley does acknowledge that his aggressive style of play has led to injuries. He won't change that but says it's his goal to avoid "unnecessary hits" that he has taken in the past.
"If you see any difference in my play that would be the only difference and that will be a minor one," he says.
Senior James Lark is once again the backup quarterback and junior Jason Munns moves up to third on the depth chart.
